


Petals Of A Pair

by QueenofStarlight



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hanahaki AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 02:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11796684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenofStarlight/pseuds/QueenofStarlight
Summary: The day Keith starts coughing up flowers is the day he realizes that falling in love is the most difficult, painful, and utterly regrettable thing he's ever done.T for Strong Language and Vomiting





	Petals Of A Pair

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for the title goes to [Teki](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Teki)!! I'm sure this would've been called something random and outrageous if not for her help. Credit for inspiration also goes to my lovely friend [Lee](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleeforreal/pseuds/ashleeforreal) who made me fall in love with the Hanahaki trope, and technically, this fic 99.9% would not exist if not for their Hanahaki fics.

The day Keith starts coughing up flowers is the day he realizes that falling in love is the most difficult, painful, and utterly regrettable thing he's ever done.

It’s a relatively normal day. He wakes up five minutes before his alarm, falls back asleep and almost misses the bus, gets into an argument with Lance over the fact he hadn’t found the time to brush his hair, lets the information from his classes go in one ear and out the other.

Everything is perfectly normal until Shiro and Allura join them at lunch. He’s the first to notice the sweat on Shiro’s brow, the way he twiddles his thumbs in his lap, the patient look on Allura’s face as she watches Shiro open and close his mouth, struggling to find the words to say whatever it is he’s trying to say. In the end, Allura speaks for him.

“We’re dating.” She says, mouth quirking up into a smile as the statement sinks in.

Keith is shocked, to say the least- shocked that he hadn’t seen it coming, shocked that everyone else _had_ seen it coming, shocked that Shiro had never told him about liking Allura or wanting to date Allura or anything about Allura, really. The possibility of them dating had never once crossed Keith’s mind, and he thinks himself stupid for not having noticed his best friend is in love.

Keith sits there in passive silence as Shiro’s cheeks flush red and Hunk congratulates them both and Matt hands Pidge a hefty wad of bills, grumbling under his breath. Shiro notices Keith’s silence and shoots him a look, to which Keith smiles, praying Shiro won’t see through it even though he knows he will. “I’m fine, Shiro. Just feeling a little tired today.” He says. It isn’t a lie.

Well, not a total lie, at least. He really is tired. But he isn’t fine.

The rest of lunch passes, and Keith starts to notice things he hadn’t noticed before. He catches the small looks Shiro and Allura give each other, the subtle glances when the other is looking away, the gentle touches and entwined fingers and pink flush in both their cheeks. Keith’s gut churns more with each discovery, and when the bell rings, he barely waits long enough to bid everyone goodbye before he’s sprinting to the toilets and throwing up in the first open stall.

The vomiting is painful, more painful than anything Keith’s ever felt, and when he looks down into the toilet bowl, he sees purple azaleas floating in the water, green leaves and chunks of what he guesses is a stem among the broken blossoms.

(When Keith Googles the meaning of azaela later that night, he can’t help but laugh. “Patience yields focus” - Shiro’s famous quote. The irony of it is rather stunning.)

Keith sucks in a few breaths and then he’s vomiting again. This time it’s even more painful and lasts a good five minutes longer than before. He coughs up flowers until the toilet is overflowing, petals and leaves spilling over onto the floor. When it finally stops, Keith is exhausted, slumped over the toilet shaking and struggling to breathe. His hair and clothes are stuck to his skin with sweat and his vision is hazy. 

Yet, determined to not let this be a setback, Keith forces himself to stand, trailing one hand along the wall as he flushes away the flowers. It takes three tries to clean them all up, and Keith holds one of the small purple blossoms in his hand as he unlatches the door of his stall and steps out. Before he can leave, however, Keith hears choking sounds from the other end of the bathroom, the same sounds he’d been making not long ago. Someone else is throwing up as well. 

Making his way over to the stall where the sounds are coming from, Keith twirls the flower between his fingers and knocks lightly on the door. “Hey-” He starts, voice coming out hoarse. He clears his throat, eyes watering a bit at the rawness of it. “Are you okay?” 

“Keith? Is that you?” 

Keith recognizes the voice, even through hacking coughs, and Keith’s heart sinks. “Yeah, Lance. It’s me.” He says quietly. He hears shifting inside the stall, and then the door is swinging open to reveal Lance looking just as exhausted and terrible as Keith knows he himself must look.

Lance scoots over next to the toilet bowl and pats the floor beside him, shooting Keith a look that says “come suffer with me.” Keith sits down and leans his head against the cool tile of the wall, ignoring the fact that he’s sitting on the floor of a high school boy’s bathroom and just found out he has Hanahaki disease for Shiro.

Lance is about to say something, but then his face scrunches up in pain and he doubles over the toilet again, spitting out pink hibiscus blossoms that crumble apart in the bowl. Keith rubs Lance’s back soothingly, knowing first-hand how much pain he must be in. Keith doesn’t bother trying to say anything consoling. He knows he wouldn’t want someone to tell him everything will be okay, not when he’s realizing the person he loves will never love him back. 

A few minutes pass, and then Lance is wiping at his mouth, loosening some of the petals that had become stuck there. “Are you gonna be alright?” Keith asks, though he already knows the answer. 

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Eventually.” Lance flushes the toilet and watches the flowers disappear, a look on his face that Keith can’t describe. When the flowers are gone, Lance leans against the wall by Keith and lets out a sigh, closing his eyes and bumping his head against the wall behind him a couple of times. “So. I bet you’ve got it bad for Shiro, huh?”

“...yeah.” Keith replies, pulling his gloves off and setting them on the floor beside him. They’re soaked in saliva and toilet water. “What about you?” He asks.

Lance chuckles. “Allura, obviously. Shiro’s a great guy, but I’m not in love with him, as much as people like to think I am.” 

Keith is about to comment that he’d never thought Lance was in love with Shiro, but then he thinks about how before he’d taken the time to actually get to know Lance, he’d simply thought he was a total player with little intelligence. Which was a complete lie. Lance liked to flirt with people, but there was never any true intent behind it, just a hope to make people feel good about themselves. Lance was smart, had good instincts, and understood people in a way Keith never could. 

And here they sit, together in a bathroom stall, in multiple kinds of pain and sharing their love woes despite the fact that they’d never really had that many in-depth conversations without one of their other friends being there instigating. It was ironic, Keith thought, that he’d be here bonding with Lance over the fact they’d both been coughing up flowers only a few minutes before. 

“So...what’re you gonna do about yours?” Lance asks, breaking the silence.

“...I haven’t really thought about it yet.” Keith says truthfully. “I guess I’ll cut it out.”

“And lose the feelings you have for Shiro?” 

“I mean, it’s not like they’re gonna do me any good. Not when Shiro’s so obviously in love with Allura. It’d be better to get rid of the flowers before Shiro starts questioning me about it.” 

Lance nods in understanding, and Keith runs a hand through his hair, the strands wet against his fingertips from the sweat on his forehead. “What about you?”

“I don’t want to cut it out just yet.” Lance says, a solemn tone in his words. “I’d at least like to tell her my feelings first, just so she knows. I’m not ready to get rid of my love for her.” 

Keith stares at Lance for a long moment, but doesn’t try to talk him out of it. It’s not his place. Keith can’t relate to Lance’s perspective - he doesn’t want to even think about confessing to Shiro, can’t bear the thought that it could make their interactions awkward or that he’d lost Shiro as a friend altogether. Shiro is too important to Keith. He can’t relate to Lance, but he says nothing.

Keith feels a pressure on his shoulder and turns to find Lance leaning against him, head nestled in the crook of his neck. Keith doesn’t mention the tears he sees on Lance’s cheeks, just takes Lance’s hand in his and stares at the wall across from them, gaze trailing the words and phrases written or carved into its surface.

“Hey, Keith?” Lance says through quiet sobs, wiping away his tears with his sleeve.

“Hm?”

“Thank you. For listening.” 

Keith smiles. “You’re welcome. Thanks for listening to me, too.”

“You’re welcome.”

Perhaps he and Lance can’t relate to each other right now, and perhaps neither of them are ready to tell anyone else about their Hanahaki (Keith doesn’t know if he ever will), but at least they have each other to confide in. 

They’re a pair, at least for right now, and that’s better than nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> #sorrynotsorry rip y'all
> 
> Azalea - patience/modesty  
> Hibiscus - gentleness


End file.
